Happy Memorial Day

This year, as in years past, families will pack up their cars and hit the road to start their vacation. As the cost of air travel increases and family budgets are squeezed, analysts are again predicting that the price of gasoline will fluctuate in the months ahead. This only adds another unnecessary burden of uncertainty on Americans. Senators, who are going on recess for a week, have the luxury of taxpayer-funded flights back home. Hardworking families aren’t so lucky.

America’s oil dependence puts the environment, the air our children breathe, and the water they drink all in peril. In light of the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history caused by the Gulf oil spill, the Senate must take action this year to reduce America’s dependence on oil and other dirty fuels. This manmade nightmare, the worst in our nation’s history, is costing the United States millions of jobs and more in lost income, and threatening our shores, ocean ecology and sea life. Millions of gallons of oil are surging into the Gulf, yet some naysayers still support this costly habit.

It’s imperative that our elected lawmakers, including President Obama and the Senate leadership, demonstrate strong convictions on a national energy and climate policy in 2010 to greatly reduce our reliance on oil. The President and the Democratic majority have spent this Congress holding health insurance companies and financial institutions accountable. Now more than ever, it’s time to hold big polluters to the same standard and end our oil addiction so we can enhance our security, economy, and reduce the likelihood of future oil catastrophes.

Our oil addiction has severe consequences on our national security interests as well. Each day we spend $1.19 billion on foreign oil, often from nations that have unstable regimes hostile to the United States and our key allies. Nations like Iran that receive our oil dollars and in turn use them to fund and arm terrorist organizations, manufacture Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) that kill or maim our soldiers in Iraq, and build a nuclear arsenal are emboldened at our expense, all because of our reliance on their oil reserves.

On a larger scale, oil pollutes our world and contributes to global climate change. This too has negative impacts that, left unaddressed, will cause irrevocable damage to our planet. Climate change causes extreme weather patterns such as droughts, floods, an increased prevalence of severe storms, and rising sea levels. The effects of these conditions are devastating to communities throughout the world.

It is critical that Congress work on an answer toward these problems. This can only happen if the Senate passes a comprehensive climate and energy bill that reduces our dependence on oil. If the Senate fails to act, it would mark the first time in the last four Congressional Sessions that a climate vote did not occur. Lawmakers have a unique opportunity to find a policy solution overwhelmingly supported by the public. They shouldn’t take it for granted.

Reality reminds us that we have limited oil resources both here at home and even in oil-rich countries. Dependence on 19th century dirty fuels like oil isn’t sustainable for the long haul. We must harness the vast natural resources at our disposal, such as wind, solar and biofuels, to provide energy for the 21st century.

In the wake of oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it’s critical for Senators X and X to work with their colleagues and pass clean energy legislation this year. Not in 2011 or 2012, but in 2010, because Americans can’t afford any further delays or inaction by Congress. We must soon have a bill that can be signed into law in order to safeguard our environment, economy, and national security from further harm.